Discovery Labs

W. Thomas Amick has been appointed chief executive officer of Discovery Laboratories, Inc. Mr. Amick has been serving as interim chief executive officer since August of 2009 and has been chairman of the board since March 2007. He will continue to serve as chairman.

Bruce A. Peacock, a member of Discovery Labs’ board, said, “Tom’s appointment is a timely and important step in securing the leadership and management structure of the company as we work with the FDA in seeking approval in 2011 of Surfaxin, and advance our respiratory pipeline. Tom’s extensive experience running major biopharmaceutical businesses, ranging from development stage through product commercialization, will prove invaluable as Discovery pursues its strategy of building a significant respiratory care company based on its promising surfactant and aerosolization technologies.”

Mr. Amick remarked, “Since becoming interim CEO, I’ve had the opportunity for an in-depth assessment of the company’s technology platforms and I fully appreciate the significant potential of our synthetic surfactant to address the treatment of respiratory disease.”

Mr. Amick has more than 30 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience as a senior executive with Johnson & Johnson. He served as vice president of the Ortho Biotech Oncology Franchise and was instrumental in the launch of Procrit and building the oncology franchise.